Penguin Goes To Arkham Asylum In 'Gotham's Midseason Premiere, But Is No Match For Hugo Strange

Well, it's been a while, but Gotham has somehow managed to return things to the status quo. Jim Gordon murdered Theo Galavan at the end of the winter finale, but aside from making enemies out of Captain Barnes and Harvey Dent, it seems that nothing has come of that decision. The exception is Penguin, who is sent to Arkham after claiming to be criminally insane when Captain Barnes arrested him for Galavan's murder. And it's there that Penguin meets Dr. Hugo Strange, who quickly begins to manipulate the former gangster. At first, Cobblepot believes he can take control of the asylum, but then he quickly realizes that he's out of his depth when he sees what Strange's "treatment" can do. And right now, he doesn't have any allies in Arkham's patients either.

It's unsettling to hear the voice of Shang from Mulan (B.D. Wong) coming from Gotham's most sinister villain yet. But watching the final few moments, it becomes clear that he's been the one experimenting on people in the Indian Hill facility. His conversation with his equally evil assistant at the end of the episode also suggests that they're actively trying to turn the regular villains and vigilantes of Gotham City into superhumans with powers.

While Penguin is no "King of Arkham," and he's no longer the King of Gotham, either. Butch, whose missing hand has been transformed into some kind of torture implement, is the "King of Gotham" now, though he's troubled by Tabitha, who's still haunting the city despite the death of her brother. It looks like those two are forming some kind of unholy alliance that will be challenging for Penguin to unseat if he makes it out of the Asylum.

There are a lot of big questions going into the rest of Gotham Season 2. How long will Penguin continue to protect Jim? What happened to Silver? How does Selina fit in? But the biggest, for me, is when will we see some of Dr. Strange's other victims? There are multiple characters who disappeared into Arkham earlier this season, from the Firefly to Barbara to, potentially, Fish Mooney. Oswald has to get out of Arkham sometime, but I think he'll need to turn to one of these fellow imprisoned villains for some help.